Roger Reid

Roger L. Reid (born August 3, 1946) is an American former college basketball coach who most recently guided the Southern Utah University (SUU) men's basketball team. He was head coach at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1989 to 1996, assistant coach for the NBA's Phoenix Suns, and played for former NBA coach Dick Motta at Weber State University. He has also coached at the high school, junior college and international levels.

High school and college

Reid attended Springville High School in Springville, Utah and was an all-state performer in both baseball and basketball. He went on to play both sports at the College of Eastern Utah and was recognized as a junior college All-American in baseball. Reid concluded his collegiate playing days at Weber State earning all conference honors in baseball both seasons he played and was also a key player for coach Dick Motta's Big Sky Conference championship team in basketball.

Minor League Baseball

After finishing college, Reid was drafted and played professionally, as a shortstop, for both the Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox minor league farm systems over four seasons (eventually playing at the AAA level).

Coaching career

High school

In 1971, Reid embarked on his basketball coaching career at Payson High School in Utah. He compiled a 50-26 in three seasons before moving on to Clearfield High School in 1974. He finished coaching at the northern Utah high school with a 60-24 record.

BYU

Reid became a member of BYU coach Frank Arnold's staff in 1978 and stayed on as an assistant under LaDell Andersen when he replaced Arnold. He was named as BYU head coach in 1989. His BYU teams were consistent winners and Reid led them to a 152-77 (.667) record. BYU also made five NCAA Tournament appearances, won three conference regular season titles and two conference tournament championships during his tenure.

His success did not prevent him from being disliked by some BYU fans and players. Reid's sons—Randy and Robbie (both heavily recruited by other schools) decided to play for their father at BYU. Some disgruntled alumni were not pleased that the Reids were playing for the Cougars. By 1996, Reid's coaching future at BYU was in doubt. Some school administrators strongly suggested that getting Chris Burgess, a highly touted player from Irvine, California to play for the Cougars could save Reid's job. Burgess was a Mormon, and his father had played for BYU. In the end, Burgess told Reid that he was going to play for Duke. Upon hearing this, Reid allegedly told him "he had let down all 9 million members of the LDS church".^[1] Burgess replied he had "never asked for that kind of pressure".^[1] Reid was dismissed on December 17, 1996 as BYU head coach shortly after the recruiting incident. Reid has stated since then that his remarks to Burgess were taken out of context.^[2] BYU had started the season 1-7 after being decimated by injuries; assistant Tony Ingle replaced Reid for the rest of what would become a 1-25 season—the worst in school history.

Reid's son Robbie did not return to BYU after serving a two-year LDS church mission to Greece. He attended the University of Michigan instead and became a two-year starter for the Wolverines to close out his college basketball career.

Phoenix Suns

Reid was hired by former BYU and NBA player Danny Ainge to be an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns. During his five years with the Suns they made two playoff appearances.

Hangzhou Horses

Reid coached the Hangzhou Horses in China's top professional league for two years.

Snow College

On May 9, 2005, Reid was hired as the head basketball coach for the Snow College Badgers. His teams at Snow compiled an overall record of 33-28 in two seasons including a 23-8 mark for the 2006-2007 season.

Southern Utah

On March 14, 2007, SUU President Michael Benson announced the hiring of Roger Reid to replace Coach Bill Evans. Reid coached for five seasons, then retired from coaching following the 2011–12 season. Reid finished his run at Southern Utah with a 54-97 record.

Quotes

• On challenging people to be their best: "Like me or dislike me as a player or athlete myself, I expected the best and worked hard. I never wanted to shortchange anybody. I wanted people to be at their best. Some people couldn't handle that, when you pushed them beyond their limits, to try and make them the best they could be . . . real men can . . . just like the players who write me and call me and say how much they got out of playing . . . those are the ones who are real winners, because they took advantage of the experience, the opportunity, the chance to play."^[3]
• On coaching his own sons: "It's kind of funny, isn't it, that in other professions, people can hire their own kid or as a professor, have them in their classes and nobody says a thing. But I saw others recruiting my sons and I thought to myself, if BYU was the place to be, and was what I was selling to other recruits, why wasn't it good enough or the place to be for my sons? But, then if they went somewhere else, people might say, 'Hey, he can't even recruit his own sons. It's a tough thing, You just can't win, playing your son."^[3]
• On the toughest coaches he has faced: "I remember when I was a high school coach and I'd see these guys on TV. I'd watch and see these guys like Coach K (Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski). But they aren't half as tough to coach against as many of the high school coaches and nobody will ever know."^[3]

Miscellanea

Reid and University of Utah coach Rick Majerus were bitter coaching rivals and seldom on speaking terms but when Reid was dismissed by BYU in 1996, Majerus started to leave him "will call" tickets to Ute games.^[4]

Reid's older brother Duke was a well-respected Utah high school basketball coach, who was also a head coach at Utah Valley University when it was a junior college.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Minors)